Notice Me
by Ariskari
Summary: Insults that bounce off when delivered by some can cut bone deep from others. One Shot set during Prisioner of Azkaban.


**Disclaimers**: None of the characters featured in this are mine. They all belong to the good and great JK Rowling. And various publishers and a certain film company have certain rights to do with them as well but I'm not sure of their legal standing so I won't make too much of a fuss about them beyond this vague acknowledgement.

**Explanation**: This came from a LJ challenge. I stated I was willing to write for the Harry Potter fandom but I didn't want to write post OotP. Bit of a bugger for me when the request was for a Snape/Hermione piece.

**Warning**: This has not had a Beta reader look at it. I have looked through it myself but my grammar is not the best in the world and there could be typos (and the spell checker seems busted on this computer). If you see any don't be shy to tell me. However, I am very aware that Hermione may not seem in character. Any suggestions would be welcomed and (if possible) used to good effect. Sorry about that.

**Notice me**

It hurt a great deal more that it really should do she decided. She shouldn't really have expected anything less. He'd said many worse things to Harry and Neville, and turning her own impressive knowledge back against her was a fairly obvious thing to do especially considering how proud she was of it. She blinked back her tears, concentrating on not crying and so not really listening to Ron trying to defend her. He should know better too. His actions would only result in lost points or detention.

But despite her half expecting it, it still hurt. A lot. She suspected that this was just the way insults were from…some people.

She had tried to rationalise this feeling with herself several times. Logic was always a good resort when dealing with strange things like this. The easiest was through writing it off as a schoolgirl crush. But it didn't seem quite right doing that. Lockhart had been a schoolgirl crush. His charming manners making it seem as though she was the only person in the world he would ever turn that dazzling smile on for. But this was _different_. _He_ was different. Not so much bright colours and flashy attraction which grew tiresome after a time, but like a complex puzzle or a book written in code. Absolutely fascinating. Just like the potion logic puzzle he had set to guard the stone back in first year she felt that if she thought about it hard enough she would be able to work it out, put together all the pieces and see the finished picture.

But it had proved far more complicated than that, which only made her more eager. Every time there was chance for interaction she would be as attentive as possible, trying to catch something that would help her see into the most recently unearthed layer of his personality. She began to really look forward to potion lessons so that she could indulge her new 'hobby'. But she always felt pleased when the others said they hated Snape or at least hated his lessons. That meant that they wouldn't pay as much attention to him as she did. It meant that this project was hers alone. Anything she discovered would be all hers. No one else's. It was quite a nice thought.

However, she had recently begun feeling that her understanding him wasn't enough. She wanted him to understand her too. Be seen for someone other than Harry Potter's intelligent female friend. She didn't mind being seen as that by the rest of the world. He was very famous so it was understandable. But she wanted it to be different with him. Understanding was probably hoping for a bit much. But acknowledgement and appreciation would be nice and should be possible. And the easiest way for a student to gain that from a teacher would be through ability with the subject and willingness to work.

Sadly with him she seemed to come across as nothing more than an annoyance whenever she tried this. That was probably why it was hurting so much. She got caught up with trying to show him just how much she cared and crossed a line. A line which seemed to change position at random. She had yet to analyse this to see if there was any real pattern in his mood changes regarding interruptions.

She finally came back to herself as he set the homework. Even through her misery she had noticed he seemed unusually passionate about the subject of werewolves. Maybe this would be a way in. She always went well above what most students did in their homework, but there was always more information she could add. She hadn't done that since the first week when McGonagall had taken her aside and gently explained that she hadn't done anything wrong but that teachers didn't want to be marking books when they had only asked for half a scroll. But since Snape seemed to care so much about their education in this area she would include everything. Absolutely everything. She would leave nothing un-researched in this; methods for dealing with them, symptoms recognition. She would even look at the lunar charts and use examples, although records from the Werewolf Registry probably wouldn't be accessible to the general public.

Maybe through this he would finally notice her.


End file.
